Nothing makes India feel like home faster than knowing what the country is about to celebrate, and nothing catches newcomers out like assuming the weather works the way it did back home. One page, both calendars: the festivals you’ll live through and the seasons you’ll live in, with the practical bits nobody thinks to mention until you are standing in your first downpour.
The one rule of Indian dates
Most festival dates move every year. Diwali, Holi, Eid and most others follow lunar calendars, so this guide gives you month windows, not fixed dates. Public holidays also differ state by state. For the exact days in your city and year, one message to your consultant settles it.
The year at a glance · most of India, your city may vary
Dec to Feb
Cool and sociable. The best weather almost everywhere; north India gets genuinely cold and foggy, the south stays mild. Peak season for visitors, weddings and being outdoors.
Mar to May
Spring, then heat. Holi opens the season; by April most of the country is hot, and May is the month to plan indoor afternoons and hill escapes.
Jun to Sep
The monsoon. Arrives in Kerala in early June and moves north. Dramatic, green, occasionally disruptive, and entirely manageable with the plan below.
Oct to Nov
The festive season. Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali in one glorious run. India at its warmest-hearted, and its busiest.
Windows are indicative for most of the country; the monsoon, the heat and the festival intensity all vary by region. Your consultant calibrates this page to your city.
The celebrations
The festivals you’ll live through
1
Diwali · October to NovemberThe festival of lights, and the emotional centre of the Indian year: lamps, sweets, gifts, family, fireworks. Expect several days of celebrations, generous society events, and the season when household staff often travel home. Join your society’s celebrations; nobody stays a stranger through Diwali.
2
Holi · around MarchThe festival of colours: one morning of joyous, paint-everywhere chaos, then lunch and a nap. Wear white you can sacrifice, keep phones in zip bags, and say yes if your neighbours invite you down. It is the fastest friendship accelerator in India.
3
The autumn run-up · September to OctoberNavratri and Dussehra in the west and north (Gujarat dances for nine nights), Durga Puja in the east (Kolkata’s grandest week). Ganesh Chaturthi sweeps Mumbai and Pune a little earlier, with processions that stop traffic and hearts alike.
4
Eid · dates move through the yearEid al-Fitr closes Ramadan with feasting and finery; Eid al-Adha follows some weeks later. In mixed neighbourhoods expect wonderful food, closed offices, and an open invitation culture if you have Muslim friends or colleagues.
5
The harvest new years · January and AprilMakar Sankranti and Pongal in January (kites in the west, sweet rice in the south), then a cluster of regional new years around April (Baisakhi in Punjab, Tamil and Bengali new years). Kerala’s Onam arrives in August to September with flower carpets and feast banquets.
6
The national days and the winter closeRepublic Day (26 January) and Independence Day (15 August) are fixed public holidays with parades and dry days. Christmas and New Year are celebrated warmly across urban India; Goa and the metros make a real season of it.
The practical side
What festivals mean for your household
1
Closures come state by stateBanks, schools and government offices follow state holiday lists, which differ from each other and from your office’s list. Around the big festivals expect several closure days; check before scheduling anything official.
2
Staff leave and the Diwali bonusHousehold staff travel home for the big festivals; agree the days well in advance and plan around them. A Diwali bonus of about one month’s pay is strongly expected; budget it from the day you hire. The full etiquette lives in Hiring Household Help.
3
Book travel earlyThe festive weeks are when huge numbers of people travel to see family. Flights and trains fill early and prices climb; if you are travelling in October or November, book when you first think of it, not when you have decided.
4
Noise, lights and late nightsDiwali brings fireworks for several nights, weddings bring bands and processions through the winter, and festival loudspeakers are part of the soundtrack. Earplugs for light sleepers, calm for pets, and a little patience: it passes, and it is joy, not disorder.
5
Deliveries and services slow downAround the biggest festivals, grocery apps, couriers and repair visits run late or pause. Stock the kitchen two days ahead of Diwali and Holi the way you would before a long weekend at home.
June to September
Monsoon survival, the calm version
1
Before it arrives: check the home onceIn May, walk the house: window seals, balcony drainage, any damp patches on ceilings or walls, and where the water would go in a hard downpour. Your landlord fixes issues far faster before the rains than during them, and your consultant can press the point.
2
Change the commute mathsRain-hour traffic is its own physics. Add real buffer to school runs and airport trips, keep a small umbrella and a dry pair of footwear at the office, and treat waterlogged underpasses as closed roads, because they effectively are.
3
Run the home slightly drierCupboards get musty and leather grows fur if ignored. Air the wardrobes weekly, run dehumidifier mode on the ACs, keep silica pouches with cameras and documents, and dry-out shoes before they go back in the rack.
4
Health, without dramaStanding water breeds mosquitoes, so dusk repellent discipline matters more in these months, and street food judgement should sharpen a notch. Stick to filtered water as always. The full medical picture lives in Healthcare in India.
5
Then enjoy itThe monsoon is also chai on the balcony, green hills an hour from every city, and the best light of the year. Mumbai’s monsoon is a force of nature; the city is proudest of how it carries on regardless, and within a season, so will you.
October to February · mainly the north
The winter air playbook
Northern winters, especially in Delhi NCR, bring stretches of poor air quality, typically from late October into January. It is real, it is seasonal, and families who set up once in October sail through it. This is the plan, not the panic.
1
Purifiers in the rooms you live inBedrooms first, living room second, sized to the room and running before the season peaks, with a spare set of filters bought in October when stock is easy. Your consultant helps source and set up during settling-in.
2
Watch the number, not the hazePut an air-quality app on your phone and let the AQI number make the day’s calls: windows open or shut, run outdoors or on the treadmill, park day or museum day. Schools publish their own outdoor-activity policies for the season.
3
Masks for the peak daysA small stock of well-fitting N95 masks covers the handful of genuinely bad days, commutes and auto rides included. The rest of the season, ordinary judgement does the job.
4
Seal the easy gapsDoor sweeps and window seals do more per rupee than any gadget, and they help against summer heat and monsoon damp too. One handyman visit in October sets the whole season up.
5
Keep perspectiveSouth and coastal cities run much milder seasons, Delhi’s worst weeks are a known, plannable window, and the same winter brings the north’s finest months: crisp mornings, gardens in bloom, and outdoor life from February onwards.
Your support
What IKAN does for you
Your consultant can confirm the exact festival and holiday dates for your city and year, so plans never rest on a moving date
Your consultant can help raise pre-monsoon fixes with the landlord while there is still time to act
We help source and set up purifiers and seasonal kit as part of settling-in, sized to your actual rooms
We make the festival introductions: your society’s Diwali evening, the Holi gathering, the celebrations worth saying yes to
The seasonal once-a-year list · one-screen check
May: home monsoon check done, landlord fixes requested in writing
June: commute buffers set, office shoes and umbrella staged
September: festive travel booked, staff festival leave agreed
October: purifiers running, spare filters in, gaps sealed, AQI app on
Diwali week: staff bonus given, kitchen stocked, society invitation accepted
Learn the second calendar and India stops surprising you, then starts delighting you. Say yes to the festivals, respect the seasons, and the year here becomes the thing you miss most when you leave.
Your IKAN Relocations team